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Dec 29, 2009, 2:57am

Fellowship of United Noobs :: War Hammer Class Fourm :: Witch Hunter :: Almost 2/3 of the way to 40....

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Topic: Almost 2/3 of the way to 40.... (Read 46 times)

Andy Roark
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Almost 2/3 of the way to 40....
« Thread Started on Oct 6, 2008, 1:34pm »

I'll chime in on the Witch Hunter, talk about what I'm doing with mine and what I think.

Two things right up front:

1) I LOVE this character and
2) The Witch Hunter is NOT a tank.

If you understand those two things we have a good starting point. Forgive me my bias (that will come shining through) and do not even consider playing this character if you have hopes, dreams or aspirations of going toe to toe with any of the heavy destruction classes.

I was drawn to this character because I loved and enjoyed the dual wielding light tanks from DAoC. Over 25+ levels of playing I can tell you that I am actually reminded much more of the Infiltrator from Albion (of which I had a level 50) than I am the Mercenary. I hope Mythic will include a light tank in the game in a future release but the Witch Hunter isn't it and anyone trying to play it as such is in for a huge, huge disappointment.

As I'm sure most everyone knows, I have the best d**n healer in the game playing with me. Having her there to keep me propped up has been one of the essential things that made the first 10-15 levels bearable and is now making RvR functional. Even with that you have to understand you are going to die. You are going to die a lot, often, repeated and usually very quickly and bloody.

So what can you do?

I have thus far focused on one of two tactics in RvR:

1) I'll shadow 1 or more real tanks and "lend a hand". When they engage with a destruction tank I'll swoop in and soften the big guy up, take large chunks out or finish them off. In a few rare cases I've been able to do all three of those things but standing still long enough to do all three is like asking for a trip back to the spawn point. That hat is a target and big tanks will come running for the easy kill - which you most certainly are.

2) Engage stealth and swing around behind/beside the fight to take out a caster / healer / ranged player. This is, by far, MUCH more fun. This will also usually result in a trip back to your spawn point because - again - the hat is a target and Destro tanks come a runnin.

Observations:

The dual wielding aspect of this character is a bit misleading. The real damage from the Witch Hunters come from the Executions. The sword is like the hammer is to the Warrior Priest - you use it to rack up the points you need to hit the Execution button.

You get three base Executions (one DD, one DOT and one DOT DD). The Mastery paths open up other options (more on that later). So far the basic DD (Absolution) has proved the most useful in PvP as the fights are usually quick, nasty and you really aren't going to have the time to sit around and wait on the DOT to tick out (Burn Heretic). The DOT DD (Trial by Pain) is dependent on your ability to stand perfectly still, not do anything else and not be hit while you fire off five rounds from the gun. Good luck with that in RvR.

Positional attacks are encouraged and you'll get one while leveling up (Torment). All in all I've found that a decent number of points in Weapon Skill (which ignores a certain percentage of armor and therefore reduces the mitigation on the other attacks) and using the basic attack (Razor Strike) comes out about as well damage wise and you don't have to try to get behind the guy. Again, with the Mastery Paths there is another option that does require the positional that actually is more helpful.

Almost all of the stats seem to have some usefulness to the character but thus far I'm going after a balanced Strength (melee damage) and Ballistic Skill (Execution Damage) spec. As I get closer to 40 I'm going to let the Ballistic Skill stat take priority but the Strength does have a very real effect on sword damage and that is the bulk of the attacks you'll be making. Secondarily I'm focusing on Weapon Skill (ignore armor) and Wounds (more hit points). Everything else I'm ignoring at this point. The skills I'm focused on are listed here in the order I consider them essential at this point.

Mastery paths have been a real challenge for me and I think I'll probably be spending more than a little gold respecing and testing other paths going forward but RIGHT NOW this is the path I'm taking:

Balanced High Medium spec in both Confession and Judgment
Judgment to 9; Pistol Whip Skill (Damage plus 3 second stun)
Judgment to 13; Burn Away Lies Execution (Reverse DOT)
Confession to 9; Repel Blasphemy Skill (Damage plus 100% Parry period to follow)
Confession to 13; Dragon Gun Execution (AoE Execution)

At 25 I got the Pistol Whip skill which is just d*#(ed fun. If you can position behind another player you can put them there for three seconds. In RvR swarms that's all it really takes for the entire mob to swarm around them and eat them alive. If you are by yourself it gives you time to build up a few easy Accusation points (needed for the Executions) and you can lay the Execution on them when they start to run away again.

The Burn Away Lies Execution (the reverse DOT) just sounds like fun.

Repel Blasphemy gives you a 100% parry chance for several seconds. This in turn unlocks a chain based on a parry attack (Confess!) that looks on paper to be pretty devastating. I have yet to pull it off in RvR because my parry is pretty spotty at this point but I have to try to go this route - if only to see what it looks like in the real world.

The Dragon Gun Execution is the only controllable (aka, non Morale based) AoE ability the Witch Hunter seems to get and again, I'm mostly just curious what this will do.

By going medium high in both Judgment and Confession, however, I'm limiting my ability to unlock the Tier 4 Morale ability in both lines which are nearly equal AoE attacks that do over 2000 damage. This is intentional. The Tier 1 Morale Ability I have (Sever Nerve) does over 500 damage every time it comes up and, as a result, I've never seen what the Tier 2 ability will do in RvR. That serves as an almost free Execution every time it comes up and I'm firing it off so much I've bound it to my F5 key.

So where am I going with this?

If you play a Witch Hunter you are playing to inflict maximum damage to the other guy before he kills you - which will happen most of the time. Because you have light armor I don't think spending any time worrying about increasing your chances to survive as a tank are really worth it. Spend your points, skills and effort maximizing your damage. In addition learn how to strafe, keep moving, suck up or get married to a really, really good healer and don't get pissed when you die. If you are willing to accept those conditions you can find yourself evaporating someone else's health bar in a few mere seconds from time to time when you can align the stars correctly and those "whoa crap" moments are well, well worth it.

If, however, you are more concerned about staying in the battle long term and winning more than you lose I think you are better suited to an Ironbreaker and will probably only get frustrated by the Witch Hunter. At this point I die more than I kill and while I'm still getting better I can clearly see that even at my best I'm going to be doing good to pull off about half of what I try to pull off. The thing that makes it worth playing is the strategy and control required and success when you do pull it off.

« Last Edit: Oct 6, 2008, 1:40pm by Andy Roark »

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talin
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Re: Almost 2/3 of the way to 40....
« Reply #1 on Oct 6, 2008, 3:40pm »

I think that's a great summary. I had played the WH to around 15 in one of the beta phases, and I was dismayed at the lack of survivability in levels 1-10 in RvR. Once you get 'Incognito' (level 10, I think) and the ability to stealth, you can stalk a cloth-wearer, use one of the great stealth openers, and then proceed to stab them vigorously while waiting for enough points to use a high-powered accusation. The really important point, as Andy mentioned, is that while the WH does great damage, they can't take it. Unless they have married a great healer, as stated

.

One minor point to add though, is that Torment (the back attack mentioned) isn't just positional; it ignores armor completely if I recall correctly. This makes it the WHs best friend against tanks, as it completely ignores their suer-high armor mitigation. I may have my ability names mixed up though

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Talin - Rank 18 / Renown 13 Warrior Priest
Taleon - Rank 18 / Renown 15 Archmage

You only live once, make it count!

Andy Roark
F.U.N. Officer

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My wife is cooler than your wife.

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Posts: 149
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: Almost 2/3 of the way to 40....
« Reply #2 on Oct 6, 2008, 4:07pm »

No, he's right. Torment does totally ignore armor. What I was getting at is the lower damage that Torment does (~170) when compared to Razor Strike (~250) almost comes out as a wash when you have higher strength and weapon skill - both factors in reducing the amount of mitigation the victim's armor does and the amount of damage seen from melee hits - when using the Razor Strike skill from any position versus only using Torment form the back.

In practical terms that means that I can focus on getting the Pistol Whip skill fired off if I can get behind the player instead of Torment and just use Razor Strike as a good, anytime, anywhere, all the time hit.

Another angle to this is the "Feinted Position" buff that allows you to ignore the positional requirements of attacks. It's a short term buff (which I am usually horrible about remembering to activate) and it's possible that using that in combination with Torment might lead to bigger hits. I should really force myself to look at that....

On a side note, the survivability of the Witch Hunter increases as you level. Your defense never gets better but your damage dealing does and in most cases can take down an even level mob without dipping below 3/4 health. You don't take damage any slower - you just kill them mob faster.

Later Edit - Talin called it. Torment used in conjunction with Feinted Position is excellent. I'm seeing much, much better damage that I was already seeing and was very happy with. In addition the Stun from Pistol Whip now works from the front as well.

Thanks dude! You made me take a second look at something I had discarded as being less than useful. You rock!

« Last Edit: Oct 6, 2008, 9:51pm by Andy Roark »

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